July 12, 2020 - City tripping.

My oldest son Anthony had to take the train today from Paris to Bordeaux and then on to Mimizan near the Atlantic Ocean to join a friend on vacation.
As his train was leaving early afternoon from the station Gare de Montparnasse, I used the occasion to also take my youngest Noah and spend the morning together in Paris before bringing Anthony to the station.
I was surprised by the crowd, or rather the lack thereof, when we walked from Centre Pompidou, passed the Hotel de Ville, which actually isn't a hotel, but the town hall, and on to the Notre Dame.

Anthony & Noah in front of the "Hotel de Ville" near the "Notre Dame" in Paris.

Back home in the afternoon, I still had some time to climb.
It was already the hottest moment of the day, but luckily I found some shade just below the top of the hill of Châteauveau.
The topout however was on warm slopers and with the sun straight into my face.
The sound of the text notification of my phone at the start of the video, by the way, was Anthony updating me that he arrived in Bordeaux and found the train that had to take him towards Ychoux, near Mimizan. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't relieved.

Fontainebleau - Châteauveau - L'Invité du Jour 7A+(7B)

July 11, 2020 - Blistered.

I had planned to do some work in the garden today, but did take out about two hours in the morning to go for a walk and a climb.
No projects or problems that I had worked on before, but just trying some boulders that I had always left aside for some other day, like today.

I started in Bois Rond Auberge, where I pulled off "Le Festin (assis)" on my second attempt. Some bad slopers into an easy topout.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Le Festin (assis) 7A+(7B)

Played a bit in "Sang et Lumière (en traversée)" on another side of the same boulder until I decided to make a stop at J.A. Martin on the way home.
There, I easily flashed "Mobil Homme" ...

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Mobil Homme 6C(7A)

... but needed a bit more attempts to top "Les Poignes d'Amour", without using the (sadly) chipped hold on the top of the boulder, by convention.

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Les Poignes d'Amour 7A(6C+)

My hands are blistered now; not from climbing, but from working in the garden for the rest of the day.

July 10, 2020 - Flip the switch.

It's been quite some years ago when I first tried "Paie ton Mac Do" in between the areas of Buthiers Canard and Buthiers Tennis. Even though I think I couldn't even stick the first move, it was a boulder that in some way attracted me and I found it strange that it only had a handful repetitions for such a popular area. I'm quite sure that if this boulder would have been in the center of for example Franchard Isatis,, you would have to stand in line to give it a try.
Up to a few weeks ago, when I started trying it again, it was even stranger that it still only had six registered repetitions on bleau.info, the last one being in March 2016.

This evening was the third session spread over three weeks that I spent trying "Paie ton Mac Do" and the previous two, I never managed to stick the crux move, going for and holding the small crimp for the right hand near the top of the prow. I touched it nearly every time, but as it's oriented in a wrong way, I hadn't been able to hold it for longer than half a second.
Somehow, the bad sloper for the left hand felt better than before and it appeared to be what I needed to hold the crimp and continue to the slopers above. I had never gotten to that point before, and to my surprise, there wasn't much anymore that I could hang on to to move higher up. On top of that, it all felt a bit sandy and my hands started to sweat. Mentally, I noticed that I was starting to prepare to fall or jump off, but I flipped a switch, tried to remain calm and struggled myself to the top.

Still only seven registered repetitions now for what is a truly underestimated beautiful boulder.
There still is the sitstart and a variation to do on it, so this boulder definitely hasn't seen the last of me yet.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Canard - Paie ton Mac Do 7B

July 09, 2020 - Hot relief.

It has been quite a week up to now, and mentally, I needed a little break this evening. It was a pleasant coincidence that I had some extra time for climbing after work, so despite the heat, I went to Coquibus Auvergne.
My initial plan was to try some of the lines on the boulder of "Le Crunch Stat'", but just as I actually remembered, the landing below the boulder was a bit too exposed to try alone or with only one crashpad.
So instead, I decided to spend some time in the relatively unknown "Le Drapeau Noir".

It's difficult to find "Le Drapeau Noir" in completely dry conditions during the colder seasons, but in during long hot a dry periods like now, humidity is not really the problem. It's rather the heat that adds to the difficulty.
I had tried it a few times, but never long. If it wasn't because of the conditions, then it was because I couldn't find the how to move through the problem.
This evening though, I was really psyched and to my big surprise, was able to work out the moves quite quickly.
For a moment I feared that the heat would prevent me from doing the problem in its whole, but somehow, I managed to work my way from start to finish.
Really nice problem this one, much nicer than it looks at first sight.

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Auvergne - Le Drapeau Noir 7B(7B+)

July 04, 2020 - Meh.

Not much to say about today's climbing.
A lot of walking around Apremont Brûlis, going from one isolated small sector to the other, trying a lot of boulders on the way. Except for "Fake Karma", that I tried for almost half an hour, never longer than ten minutes. I had bad skin and the conditions of the boulders were far from good, so anything much longer only made it worse.

Only managed to get away with "Odor", on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Brûlis - Odor 7A(7A+)

July 03, 2020 - Chocolate makes one smile.

Just a quick climb after work, but after a long and exhausting work week, it felt good to be out in the forest alone.
I stayed close to home and went to the nearby new area of Justice de Noisy. Well, not completely new, as it gathers the boulders behind and around the already for long known "Fanny Chipie". It is the sector where "Halleluja" is, and where Tony Fouchereau and Thierry Vasseur opened many more boulders just before the lockdown.
Most of them are not published yet, but the topo can already be found on bleau.info (https://bleau.info/topos/topo1228.html).

Last Friday after work, I was there to try the older "Le Rire d'Evelyne", but it was so hot that day, that it wasn't possible to get to the top. I was determined to go back when it was less hot, like this evening.
I did work out what to do last time, but the first moves are very subtle, and I had to get into it again, but it worked out in the end.

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Le Rire d'Evelyne 7A(7A+)

There was still some time left, so I headed to boulder 8 on the topo, to try problem 'b'.
I had noticed the boulder on one of my previous visits and it is a logical and attractive problem, but it needed some more time to dry.
Now it was perfect, and somehow, I managed to flash it with relative ease.
According to the information that I received, I did "Chocolat", opened by Tony and Thierry. Nice line with one hard, big move.

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Chocolat 7A

June 28, 2020 - Bancroche?

Some of the boulders that I recently opened in La Charbonnière and the small topo that I made, have been published on bleau.info now, and probably more to come (https://bleau.info/topos/topo1230.html).
This afternoon, I went back to the boulder that was cleaned by David Evrard, and on which he had opened quite some lines and variations, as can be seen in the video on his Vimeo channel (https://vimeo.com/326997026).

It's on boulder 15.

Last time I was there, I had been looking at what David seems to call "Bancroche" in his video, but it looked like it needed some additional cleaning and for some reason that day, I didn't feel like it.
It was obvious that the boulder has seen some climbers since then, because it looked all clean now.

The straight up version of "Bancroche" was pretty hard and required a good fight. One crux at the start and another at the very end.
Very nice problem!

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Bancroche 7B

The right exit went on the first attempt after taking a small break, but that was merely because I did work out the far move to the right before going from the start again. Another great problem!

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Bancroche (droite) 7A+

As far as I'm aware, David didn't grade the problems yet and I'm not even sure about the names, but looking at his video, it does seem like he named it as such. 

As for the grades, these are merely an estimate of what it felt like to me at that moment.

I have no way to reach out to David for confirmation, but just in case he, or someone who knows him personally can get his opinion or a reaction. All the credit goes to David and in the end, it is his call.

*** UPDATE June 29, 2020: "Bancroche" has been opened by Stéphan Denys. ***